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Old November 8th 16, 05:41 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Sean[_2_]
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Default FAI, soaring and Olympic Games

I think the Harris Hill group is doing great. But they are unique in many ways in terms of the facility, history, museum, funding, etc.

What's missing? :-). How about what isn't missing?

1) Serious focus at the SSA level. Leadership and realistic prioritization..
2) A sense of urgency nationally (carefully drilled down to the club level) and a plan. Oddly youth soaring programs would be very healthy for soaring clubs yet we seem to have few and no real national focus.
3) A national plan to motivate/help clubs to do what Harris Hill is doing.
4) A website (for the youth specifically) along with social channels. Kids do not want to talk to us about this, they want to talk to other kids. It needs to be self sustaining and "theirs" not ours. (a different conversation)
5) The chemistry and inertia of 30 such vibrant youth programs (or 10-15 in a region) operating simultaneously and feeding off each other. One or two at a time is not going to ignite this. Many need to be doing what Harris hill is doing now.

IMO, the SSA leadership needs to seriously re-prioritize (rules committee, etc) and re-focus on making sure that we develop these programs and measure success constantly.

Just look at Britain, Australia, France, Germany, etc. They seem to have great youth energy and participation (at all levels). Many have several national youth competitions, each with 50+ youth pilots each (plus instructors, etc). Imagine 3 or 4 seniors full of Juniors. Great parties for the kids, fun, etc. A great vibe. Healthy, active social media, video (youtube), twitter, snap-chat, etc.

A few quick examples (links to websites, etc all available and lots of inter-team taunting [very healthy]):
(Some of these are all 50x more active than our own SSA overall websites and social media)
(PS...websites are becoming almost irrelevant)
https://www.facebook.com/ukjuniorgliding/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/176599515713334/
https://www.facebook.com/GermanJuniorGlidingTeam/
https://www.facebook.com/Belgian-Jun...7310690991217/
https://www.gliding.co.uk/juniorgliding
Also France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Poland, etc, etc, etc, etc.
All flying FAI rules together by the way.

The truth is that we may never recover. The kids are trying but they are going to need significantly more help than they have at present. We (SSA, US Soaring) cant survive without solving this problem soon. It needs to be a huge priority. It simply is not.

How the US fell so far off the ledge with youth soaring yet so many other countries are still thriving (and highly organized and focused) is puzzling to me (despite the obvious). What happened 15, 20, 25 years ago to cause this near extinction vs. other counties east and west? Australia has the same size, isolation problem but seems to be developing many juniors. Even Canada is stronger. Anyone have any thoughts?